Showing results by author "Max Allan Collins" in All Categories

Legendary editor, Maxim Jakubowski, delivers another chilling anthology collecting stories of cold-blooded murder, revenge and crimes-gone-wrong from the best of the best in crime fiction. Spine-chilling and gripping, these tales will grip you with their devious narrators and crafty twists.

After nearly fifty years in the killing business, the hitman known as Quarry was enjoying a comfortable retirement–until the grown daughter he only recently met mysteriously went missing. Now it’s up to the old man to show he hasn’t lost a step and, with the help of a femme fatale from his past, prove he’s as ruthless, deadly and unstoppable as any man half his age.

In 1968, Nate Heller is there when Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel. Heller takes it upon himself to investigate the murder when a friend of his and Bobby’s raises doubts about the LAPD’s investigation. Heller strongly suspects the involvement of Jimmy Hoffa (currently imprisoned), but Hoffa seems to be in the clear as the private eye looks into the possible presence of CIA enemies of RFK’s on the murder night, the apparent manipulation of Sirhan Sirhan into a Manchurian Candidate-style assassin, and a probable second shooter.

Thirteen bibliomysteries by best-selling and award-winning authors are contained in this first of volume of a must-listen collection.

Private eye Mike Hammer is no stranger to murder, but this time he has two to untangle - the killing of the Captain, a legless, homeless panhandler, dismissed by the police as minor, and the slaying of gambling kingpin Marty Wellman, whose lady friend, Helen Venn, turns to the P.I. for help when the Mob fingers her for the next kill. Seems the new kingpin, Carmen Rich - with whom Hammer has a violent history - thinks Helen made off with ten mil in skim money courtesy of her late lover, or anyway, so Rich claims.

Hammer is at a high society party when a wealthy and well-respected man, Colby, is hit by a car and badly injured. When all he expected was a night on the town, Mike is hired to find out who was driving the car. His search leads him on a trail of murders, the victims often exhibiting the same kind of strangulation as the cause of death. How are they connected to an accident involving Corby, and why is the man himself acting so strangely?

Presidential candidate - and force of nature - Huey Long, the “Kingfish,” is in fear for his life. After Nathan Heller delivers the former Louisiana governor a bulletproof vest, the Kingfish hires the Chicago private eye to investigate death threats from political rivals. Soon Heller runs head-on into an IRS investigation seeking millions skimmed from state workers for Huey’s “de-duct box”... and into the arms of the ex-governor’s lovely ex-mistress. When the charismatic politician is shot down by a seemingly crazed doctor, Heller gets a new employer....

No longer a killer-for-hire, Quarry now offers his services to people targeted by other hitmen. In this case, the assassin is a beautiful woman who may be as deadly at the game as Quarry himself.

Mike Hammer, the toughest PI of all, draws a seemingly routine assignment—playing bodyguard to diva Rita Vance on the eve of her big Broadway comeback. But Rita is an old flame of Hammer’s, and when their romance is rekindled, the detective finds the actress facing death threats and himself the target of one hit man after another. When the actress disappears, the show must go on, which, with Mike Hammer, means swift, violent retaliation.

Winter, 1969. After a hit-and-run accident nearly kills her mother, Velda learns her father is not who she thought he is. Seeking to uncover her true heritage, Velda and Mike Hammer travel to sunny Dreamland Park, where retired law enforcement officers keep an eye on notorious criminals held under the Witness Protection Act. Just as Velda and Mike’s search leads to a dead end, a brutal attempt on their lives and a missing fortune in mob money leads them to a deadly midnight confrontation in a cemetery where secrets are buried and open graves await.

Private investigator Mike Hammer and the beautiful Velda go on vacation to a small beach town on Long Island after wrapping up the Williams case from I, the Jury. Walking along the boardwalk, they witness a brutal beating at the hands of some vicious local cops - and Hammer wades in to defend the victim.

Mike Hammer has been away from New York too long. Recuperating in Florida after the mob shoot-out that nearly claimed his life, he learns that an old mentor on the New York police force has committed suicide. Hammer returns for the funeral—and because he knows that Inspector Doolan would never have killed himself. But Manhattan in the seventies no longer feels like home. Hammer’s longtime partner, Velda, disappeared after he broke it off for her own safety, and his office is shut down.

When a hitman shows up at retired gunman Quarry's refuge, who is the target? Is it Quarry? Or is the assassin on a different mission - and if so, can Quarry foil it for revenge and profit? This audiobook is fourth in the classic hard-boiled Quarry Series from the 1970's.

In 1946 Chicago, Nathan Heller - president of the flourishing A-1 Detective Agency - is hired to protect racing-wire gambling chief James Ragen, who is nonetheless shot down on the streets of Chicago. Not one to take such an affront sitting down, Nate goes after the killer, but he’s in for the biggest surprise of his career. Demonstrating once again that he is the master of true-crime fiction, Max Allan Collins’ story of the birth of Las Vegas - and the dirty deeds that floated all around it - is a masterpiece of modern noir. Heller follows the trail as it leads to Hollywood and Las Vegas....

Jordan Rivera is an ordinary kid with an ordinary family, until a vicious killer takes it all away, sparing her, but leaving her broken. The murders of her father, mother, and brother destroy something inside Jordan, who spends ten long, mute years in an institution. Catching a glimpse of a news report about another family slaying, Jordan at last breaks her silence. Now she's out, and she molds herself - body and mind - into an instrument of justice.

It’s 1949 in Washington, D.C., and Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, convinced he has been targeted for murder, hires Chicago P.I. Nate Heller for protection. Heller must deal with Beltway infighting, Communist paranoia, Israeli agents, and a mysterious military group called the Majestic Twelve in his journey to protect Forrestal. With his client locked away in a mental ward, Heller begins to doubt his own sanity as he explores reports of flying saucers landing near the tiny desert town of Roswell, New Mexico.

A Mystery Writers of America “Grand Master” - author of the gangster classic Road to Perdition, longtime Dick Tracy writer, and multiple Shamus Award winner - teams with an acclaimed rising young historian in this riveting, myth-shattering dual portrait of Al Capone, America’s most notorious gangster, and Eliot Ness, the legendary Prohibition agent whose extraordinary investigative work crippled his organization.

In the spirit of Devil in the White City comes a true detective tale of the highest standard: the haunting story of Eliot Ness' forgotten final case - his years-long hunt for "The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run", a serial killer who terrorized Cleveland through the Great Depression and tormented Ness to his dying breath.

In 1931, Nate Heller - on a leave of absence from the Chicago P.D. - goes to Hawaii to work as an investigator for family friend Clarence Darrow. One of five Honolulu natives accused of the rape of recent bride Thalia Massie has been murdered; facing murder charges are Thalia’s naval officer husband and her socialite mother. Something doesn’t seem right, and Darrow has brought Heller in to get to the bottom of it.

In midtown Manhattan, Mike Hammer, recovering from a near-fatal mix-up with the Mob, runs into drug dealers assaulting a young hospital messenger. He saves the kid, but the muggers are not so lucky. In a New York of flashy discotheques, swanky bachelor pads, and the occasional dark alley, Hammer deals with doctors and drug addicts, hippie chicks and hit men, meeting changing times with his timeless brand of violent vengeance.